That should be plenty for what you want to do. Assuming a desktop, you might want to consider adding a second hard drive so you can use back up software to keep an image of the main drive on the second drive. That way if the main drive every fails you can just replace it and re-install the image from the backup drive and your back in business without loosing any of your log data or anything else. Backups run a lot faster to an internal drive than they do to an external USB or network drive.

I would stay far away from Dell. The founder is in the process of going private and dropping desktop and laptop computers so support will be going from questionable to even worse soon. Simple get 64bit Win7 or 8 (which will soon be upgraded to 8.1 for free) and at least 6 gig or ram not 4. A AMD processor with quad core or Intel I-3 core third generation. The I-3 is entry level for the I core series but is twice as fast as dual core G series Pentiums. They are both dual core but "I" series also supports hyper threading which gives you 4 virtual cores in task manager. It also has better built in Video as the G series is a cheap entry level CPU. AMD does not support Hyper threading and why you want four core model and AMD owns ATI and has good built in video options. While a bit slower than Intel you will not miss it with quad core one. As far as off the shelve brands check out HP as they build a quality and excellent tech support.

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--------------------------------------Ham since 1969.... Old School 20wpm REAL Extra Class..

Thanks for the advice. I'm not worried about support. Our office has 25 Dell desktops and I can get support from our IT guy.

Thanks

Well still would advise against a soon to be orphaned PC brand. Dell was never on the cutting edge of technology and the pentium G is a new CPU it is inferior to I-3 in CPU and built in GPU. 4 gig is marginal too for 64 bit as it really start to sing with 6 gig and more and believe it or not win8 uses less memory the 7 too. As far as IT support that was not my concern, warranty and driver/software updates are a far bigger concern

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--------------------------------------Ham since 1969.... Old School 20wpm REAL Extra Class..

Your selections I am sure meet your current criteria. You can check my qualifications on QRZ at my bio page to see if I am offering good advice.

Future proofing your system so that it lasts a minimum of 3 years is important. I personally do not know your needs and specifications. So, I would ask you to ask yourself, what you intend to do with this new PC. If rig control and logging is important, consider your rig control interface. Will it be USB or RS-232? Select hardware accessories accordingly. Will you want to include the use of digi modes? Again, choose well.

To be honest, your office IT guy would rather have a vasectomy performed orally than help you with your personal PC. Take that from and IT guy!

Some of the advise here is valid. I can recommend Newegg.com for parts and pre-configured systems that will blow the doors off a Dell! And just think, putting your own system together to be a killer system, while not necessarily cheaper, will look cooler that a Dell.

Just my $.25 worth. But then, I've been doing this since 1987! That's why it cost more....

Also HP makes a laptop line called the ProBook 4540 that come with a I3, I5 or I7 core CPU and both WIN7 and WIN8 software. Even the I3 version which can be had for a little over 500 bucks would smoke that Dell too.

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--------------------------------------Ham since 1969.... Old School 20wpm REAL Extra Class..

I work in IT (as a Unix Admin) and do not recommend Dell or HP or any other major name brand of desktop to anyone who asks... Most of them are mass produced for the consumer market and do not use industry standard components such as power-supplies, cases, mother boards, etc. which makes them hard to find and get parts for (Sony is the absolute worst, I avoid them at all costs). We're lucky to have a MicroCenter store here and I strongly like their PowerSpec store brand, usually same specs as a Dell for about $100 less. Have bought a few in the past and have had my current one for over 3 years and love it, never a problem...(Core-4, 4GBmem, Win7 Pro 64bit). And MicroCenter will repair one in 24 hrs, try getting a Dell or HP or Acer fixed that fast !!

All I'd say is you might want a decent dedicated sound card for your digital work, unless your rig already has a USB port (or you have a Signalink USB). The integrated sound might be good enough for digital work but it is nice having one just for digital modes and one for everything else.

As for the people arguing for getting a more powerful machine (for more $$$) I'd ask, why? He just wants to do radio logging and the like. I'm in to powerful latest gen CPUs and video cards but not everyone needs them. My wife loves her $500 laptop.

As for the people arguing for getting a more powerful machine (for more $$$) I'd ask, why? He just wants to do radio logging and the like. I'm in to powerful latest gen CPUs and video cards but not everyone needs them. My wife loves her $500 laptop.

You need reasonable power to exploit new OSes. New DDR3 Ram is like 10 bucks or less a giga byte. No excuse to scrimp on RAM. A entry level CPU today has power not even dreamed of in XP days but still need lots of ram to fully exploit it.

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--------------------------------------Ham since 1969.... Old School 20wpm REAL Extra Class..

Sure you can spend more money on a new model but use that money for gear for the shackand the antenna farm!p

73 james

Very dated hardware. CPU was in its prime 6 years ago. Intel has not used warm running .065 dies in mobile CPU's since 2008 (current is cool running .022) and not used that CPU socket since 2008 either. Point was why spent good money for old hardware when a new 400 dollar laptop will blow it away in power and upgradeable and usable life span too.

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--------------------------------------Ham since 1969.... Old School 20wpm REAL Extra Class..

Graphics for the Haswell-based chips will be twice as good as the graphics for last year’s Ivy Bridge chips.

More information will be released by Intel on Tuesday, June 4th at the Computex trade show in Taiwan.http://t.co/9RjSkNNM5n

These new quad-core desktop chips will have MSRP from $192 to $339. They run from 3 gigahertz to 3.9 gigahertz, and consume between 35 to 84 watts of power. The fastest chip is a $339 Core i7-4770K chip, which consumes 84 watts of power and runs at 3.6 gigahertz, and you can overclock that to 3.9 gigahertz.

Preliminary pricing for the Intel Lynx Point (series 8 PCH) motherboards will be virtually same as current Panther Point (series 7 PCH) motherboards. STEP C2 of the Lynx Point PCH, that resolves a USB 3.0 issue, are expected to be seen in motherboards near end of summer/Labor Day.

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